Water fee woes resurface for HOAs

Charge for stormwater runoff could jump

On the heels of a 40 percent increase last fiscal year, Montgomery County is planning a 26 percent increase in the fee it charges to keep its stormwater management system up to grade.

While the proposed hike would mean a $10 increase for homeowners, the increased Water Quality Protection Charge will in some cases multiply to thousands of dollars for homeowners associations, apartment complexes, shopping centers and churches whose property drains into residential stormwater facilities.

County Executive Isiah Leggett's proposed fiscal 2010 budget bumps the fee's flat rate to $45.50 per 2,400 feet of impervious area, nearly twice what it was in fiscal 2008. The county Department of Environmental Protection uses aerial photographs to measure the amount of impervious area — such as parking lots, roads, roofs and sidewalks — on applicable properties.

DEP is also studying whether to levy the fee on all commercial properties in the county. The county will complete its study within a year.

The flat rate increase is needed for to pay for more personnel; to cover a new finance charge and costs for taking over unwanted stormwater management facilities from communities and private developments. (As of last year, DEP managed 3,536 oil-grit separators, dry and wet ponds, underground sand filters and underground storage tanks.) The county will also begin paying the state $133 million over five years for a sewer permit that has for the last five years cost $25 million.

For fiscal 2008, the county's Department of Environmental Protection recalculated the amount of impervious surfaces for applicable properties. More than a third of the 43,000 properties with impervious area saw an increase.

The sting was hardest felt in Montgomery Village where HOAs own many of their roads and generally have more commonly-owned property than typical communities. In some cases there, the fee jumped more than 600 percent.

The Montgomery Village Foundation and eight HOAs in the Village appealed that increase for 140 distinct parcels. After weeks of research, Leggett decided the increase was unfair and refunded $280,000 and credited $121,000 to hundreds of property owners across the county.

But the new land calculations will be included in July's property tax bill countywide, will phased in in one-third increments over the next three years, said Bob Hoyt, DEP's director.

Homeowners associations are not named in the 2001 law that created the charge, but the county interprets the code to include them. The county also denied the request of Montgomery Village leaders to exempt roads from the charge, though "there's a potential to look at it" in the future, said Steven Shofar, DEP's watershed division chief.

Montgomery Village leaders want the increases from the new land recalculations to be phased in at no more than 10 percent per year.

"It's some relief, but it's not exactly what we were looking for. We believe those increases — they're just too high in a very short period of time," said David B. Humpton, the foundation's executive vice president. "We all want to help the Chesapeake Bay, but these fees seem to be exorbitant."

As Lake Whetstone, which acts as a massive stormwater facility, continues to degrade, Humpton said, Village residents are left wondering where the money goes.

"That's a big concern for our residents; they don't see any benefit from it," he said.

Revenue generated through the charge helps fund monitoring and maintenance of the county's stormwater system. The flat rate increase would bring the county $10.8 million.

The County Council will hold a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. A council committee will discuss the WQPC the next morning. The council is expected to approve the fiscal 2010 budget in May.

As highlighted recently by poor test results in Clarksburg, water quality is always a top concern, said councilwoman Nancy M. Floreen, head of the committee that will review the WQPC. The council will look closely at how the WQPC fits in to that. But at first blush, Floreen acknowledges that the increase is "definitely a hefty hike."

"That raises some concerns. On the other hand, we're very committed to water quality in the county," Floreen (D-At Large) of Garrett Park said Thursday. "If this is what it takes to get us there, that may be the only option that we have."

Because of last year's recalculation of the county's Water Quality Protection Charge, the county set up a Web site where property owners can see their fee,

www.montgomerycountymd.gov

/wqpc.

The flat rate is nearly four times what it was when established for the fiscal 2003 budget.